The latest battle to protect Vancouver Island’s forests isn’t being waged by an environmental organization—it’s being waged by business, in particular, the tourism industry. A group of tourism businesses in the Discovery Islands, near Campbell River, are charging the government with indifference to the needs of a major economic player in the region.
It’s time the B.C. government faced the fact that its Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan, announced in 2007, is doing little to improve the situation for these animals and in some areas has made matters worse.
New research led by the University of Northern British Columbia is recommending that the area surrounding the “Ancient Forest Trail,” about 130 kilometers east of Prince George, be named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Citing the fact that these cedars have been reduced to less than four percent of the more than 130 thousand square hectare bioclimatic zone east of Prince George, the research indicates that these stands of ancient red cedars and surrounding biodiversity are “globally significant” and require the protection and status afforded other rich areas of scientific and cultural value deemed World Heritage Sites
The ceremony took place in Cathedral Grove, Canada's most famous old-growth forest that is currently under threat with a planned cutblock by Island Timberlands on the above mountainside on Mount Horne.
Conservation groups honour Scott Fraser for his efforts in saving endangered old-growth forests and related jobs. The award was presented by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance, a non-profit environmental group working to protect old-growth forests and ensure sustainable second-growth forestry. The award is jointly sponsored by the Youbou TimberLess Society, former employees of the now-defunct Youbou sawmill who continue to advocate sustainable forest policies.
Tanner and other conservationists said they are concerned that logging the area would further fragment the forest that is contiguous with the small park, and destroy an important wildlife corridor. They said they believe logging would also threaten eco-tourism in the area by destroying a major section of the popular hiking trail, the Mt. Horne Loop Trail, which the cutblock overlaps.
“I just stopped dead in my tracks. The forest was now a field of stumps. It was the worst sort of clearcut you will see anywhere.”
A huge THANK YOU to Nathaniel Glickman and members of the UVic AncientForest Committee for organizing a totally fun and successful fundraising night with a first rate line-up of local musicians (Moonshine Gang Victoria Chapter, (as the) Crow Flies, Redwood Green, Co-Captain, and DJ Rough Child) on Saturday's 3rd Annual "Tree Huggers Ball"! The event raised a total of $4800 for our young organization that depends on grassroots support to stay afloat! Big thanks as well to Amanda Cook for donating nearly $400 in proceeds from sales of her "Stand up for the Coast" t-shirts! See you again next FALL!!
CTV news clip on Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser receiving a Forest Sustainability Award from the Ancient Forest Alliance and Youbou TimberLess Society.
Conservationists are calling for much stronger, comprehensive old-growth protection policies in BC after having discovered a major logging threat to Canada's most famous old-growth forest, Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. Conservationists came across survey tape marked "Falling Boundary" and "Road Location" in an old-growth Douglas fir and hemlock forest only 300 meters from the park boundary
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